


won't you write my name into the stars

by postfixrevolution



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Drabble, F/F, Hoshido | Birthright Route, Vignette, can be read as romantic or not, don't talk to me about revelation, set before chapter 27/Endgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-20
Updated: 2016-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-23 23:14:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7483779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/postfixrevolution/pseuds/postfixrevolution
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kamui doesn’t know if she can call the sky in the astral plane real, but she knows that she could stare at it forever and never find every pattern hidden in their nebulous infinity.</p><p> </p><p>or: Two sisters in battle have one last conversation before the final fight. Azura smiles for her, and Kamui tells her it’s a sight she'll make sure is inscribed in the stars.</p>
            </blockquote>





	won't you write my name into the stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ethereally](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ethereally/gifts).



> For Wei, the ever-witty and ever-kind queen of receipts~ I feel lucky to have met her, and I hope she knows that!
> 
> Unbeta-ed but spellchecked, as I am wont to do, and I hope you enjoy~

There is a tranquility about the astral plane that Kamui knows she can find nowhere else. The nighttime air that envelops her is cool, with just enough bite to erase the memories of sweat and a long day’s training under brilliant, blinding sun. She sits on the edge of her castle’s quartz spring, bare toes barely skimming the cool surface of the pond, whose water is so calm that it is a perfect mirror of the unending sky above. The princess does not need to crane her neck to see the full moon in all its glory; the image is mirrored on the spring's surface, reflecting silver moonbeams back into the sky that they tumbled down from, and she absently wonders if the cool-silk feeling of the air is how it feels to touch moonlight.

On a whim, Kamui kicks her feet, disturbing the picturesque reflection on the water’s surface with a barrage of ripples. The moon loses its shape, the edges of its perfect circle trembling in and out of line, and crimson eyes watch their own image waver and shake, too. Fitting, she thinks absently, when the Nohrian castle lies just outside the astral gate and she’s clothed in Hoshidan gold and alabaster, every trace of Nohr long erased from her person; she’s not unfamiliar with shifting reflections, and this time is no different. 

With one last flick at the surface, she stills her feet, lets the water calm once again. The silvery moon comes back into focus, and when her reflection follows suit, there is another behind her, with crystal blue hair and molten gold eyes. Azura watches, mesmerized, as the water stills to its mirror-like stillness, and when her eyes lock onto the reflection of crimson ones, she stares.

“Is it alright if I join you?” she asks softly. Kamui turns around for this, to be able to shoot her a real smile, not one mirrored on the pond’s silky surface. 

“Of course,” Kamui responds brightly, patting the ground beside her. “I’d love the company.”

Golden eyes blink at her, as if they hadn’t expected such an affirmative response, but their owner eventually sits, sweeping her skirt to the side and skimming her own bare toes against the water’s surface. The images reflected on it ripple again, but this time, Kamui pays them no heed. Her eyes are trained half on Azura and half on the sprawling sky above them. Stars stretch out as far as the eye can see, off towards some distant horizon. 

“Thank you,” her companion says. Crimson eyes flicker towards her. “Forgive me if I’m intruding.”

“Intruding?” Kamui echoes. “I don't own the spring, Azura," she laughs. "Er, well;  _ technically  _ I do," she amends weakly, turning her gaze back skyward. "But a view like this - hundreds of thousands of stars and cool water at our toes -  is better when it’s shared."

Azura hums in agreement, tilting her head back to gaze at the sky. Her hair cascades like a waterfall down her back, pooling over the smooth ground and brushing against the back of Kamui’s fingers, smoother than silk itself.

“I feel as though there are more stars here than there are in Hoshido,” she ponders absently. “While there are city lanterns and watchtower flames at home, here, there are none. All I can see are stars, endless as fallen cherry petals in the spring. You’re right about it being quite a view.”

A small smile pulls up at Kamui's lips, and she kicks her feet idly, relishing in the cool feeling of water between her toes. 

"More than Nohr, too," she adds in agreement, tracing idle shapes in the stars with her eyes. "Sometimes it feels like a sky all its own. I see constellations that remind me of home, but there’s always an extra star there or another one missing or out of place." 

“The astral plane truly is a land all its own,” Azura replies pleasantly, following Kamui’s gaze upward. “Once this is all over, I might miss it. The tranquility, the camaraderie, the stars.”

“I guess we will have to leave once the war is over,” Kamui says. “It’s weird to think about it, after everything. The bonds we might never have formed otherwise, the battle scars we’ve let heal. I might miss the night sky most of all,” she confesses softly, a sheepish laugh puffing past her hips. “I’ve stared at it every night, and I don’t think I’ve found even half the constellations it has to offer.”

“I suppose you have a point,” Azura agrees. “Your allies will follow you from here, but the stars can’t be taken from their place in the sky.” She kicks her feet absently, splashing the sound of rippling water against their ears. “Perhaps it is for the best. What is of this realm should remain here, and what isn’t should return.”

A small frown weighs down the corners of her lips, but Kamui hums a quick, “Mhm,” nonetheless. She traces the mirror images of Nohrian constellations in the sky this time, the hunters and great snakes that her tutors had painstakingly drilled into her mind. Her favorite was the eagle, winged and majestic, and she’d dream of flying past the borders of the Northern Fortress on its back, chasing the moon until the sun peeked out from the opposite horizon and the dreary stone walls were far out of sight. “It’s a shame, though,” she sighs eventually. “One day, these stars and their constellations will be just a memory.”

Fingers brush gently against the side of her hands, softer than the wispy grass that tickles the bottom of her feet in early spring, and Kamui tears her eyes away from the sky to meet Azura’s gaze, two golden, earthly stars in their own right. 

“Don’t think too little of memories, Kamui,” she tells her cryptically. “You can see something countless times, but you may never experience the exact same wonder again if not for memories.”

Crimson eyes stare owlishly at the girl for a moment, a blank gaze and slack lips, before she exhales a quick laugh, allowing her frown to give way to a smile. 

“I guess you’re right, Azura,” she concedes lightly. “For every constellation I find here, maybe I can find its sister in the sky back home. That way, I know I won’t forget the time I spent here,” she says resolutely. “It’ll be written into the stars themselves.”

Azura giggles softly, a wonderfully musical sound from her lips. “That sounds wonderful,” she tells her companion sincerely. “I could think of no better way to honor a such a beautiful memory.” She places her hand atop Kamui’s own, and the smile she offers her is small, but breathtaking. Kamui can’t help but grin back.

“I’ll have a lot of beautiful memories to write up there after this war,” she says happily. “But just sitting here, stargazing and talking and seeing you smile - I’m going to make sure that one is the first.”


End file.
